27 Spending Sprees

[List of Upgrades Available]

[Qi Gathering Array Lvl 2] => [Qi Gathering Array Lvl 3]

Cultivation Efficiency Increase +20% => Cultivation Efficiency Increase +40%

Cost: 2000 Spirit Stones

[Martial Library Features]

Allow users to access the library which contain Martial Arts Skills that user can learn.

Cost: 100K Spirit Stones

[Unlock Guest Features]

Allows guests to arrive at The Seclusion House which can bring random fortunes or treasures.

Cost: 1 Million Spirit Stones

[Unlock Kitchen Features]

Allows users to cook food that can greatly benefit their cultivation speed.

Cost: 5 Million Spirit Stones

[Unlock Personal Assistant]

Allows users to retain a personal robot assistant to help with various tasks and aid during their time here.

Cost: 10 Million Spirit Stones

Let's check out how many spirit stones Ian has prepared for me. [22.5 million Spirit Stones]

"Oh, my god! That's a lot, but when I see the actual number, I'm surprised," Augustus exclaimed in shock.

After a closer look, Augustus now thinks that the system's pricing is reasonable. He's ready for a spending spree!

First, he decides to upgrade the Qi Gathering Array to Level 10.

[2000 Spirit Stones Consumed]

[10K Spirit Stones Consumed]

[50K Spirit Stones Consumed]

[100K Spirit Stones Consumed]

[150K Spirit Stones Consumed]

[300K Spirit Stones Consumed]

[600K Spirit Stones Consumed]

[1 Million Spirit Stones Consumed]

[Qi Gathering Array Lvl 10] => [Qi Gathering Array Lvl 11]

Cultivation Efficiency Increase +260% => Cultivation Efficiency Increase +300%

Cost: 5 Million Spirit Stones

Augustus stops there as the next upgrade requires a whopping five million spirit stones. He needs to allocate his resources to other important things too.

Next up, Augustus unlocks the Martial Library features.

["Martial Library" unlocked.]

The moment he purchases it, the area expands, and the system notifies him.

The left outer wall is removed, and the area expands further, revealing a massive golden pagoda-shaped building that Augustus assumes to be the library.

"It looks like the Magic Tower, but it's shaped like a pagoda," Augustus observes. However, since Augustus has never seen the Magic Tower from the outside, he doesn't know that it looks quite similar.

Without exploring the library, Augustus moves on to unlocking more features, spending his spirit stones like there's no tomorrow.

["Guest Features" unlocked]

["Guest House" unlocked]

Suddenly, a new building materializes on the right side of his mansion, taking on a completely new shape.

A new button appears on his system, and Augustus taps it excitedly.

[Guest List]

[1-Star] [Wandering Merchant]: The merchant is a treasure trove of weapons, armor, and useful items that can aid users in completing quests or earning more points.

[1-Star] [Alchemist]: The alchemist is an expert in selling powerful pills, elixirs, and talismans that can help users in their cultivation. They also offer insights on refining techniques and provide rare ingredients that the users can use in their cultivation.

[1-Star] [Daoist Friends]: These guests could be fellow cultivators who have their own unique cultivation paths and techniques. They can offer advice, share cultivation insights, and even provide resources or materials to aid the users on their own paths.

"What? There's no choice to call Ziyu?" Augustus was extremely disappointed.

Next, Augustus was curious about the kitchen features.

[The 'Kitchen' is unlocked]

As Augustus stood in the middle of the yard, the kitchen was being renovated entirely. There were ingredients all over the cabinets, inside the fridge, and new tools also appeared, such as cooking pans, woks, pots, and more.

Augustus turned and headed inside the kitchen and was surprised to see that the table and cabinets that were once empty were now filled with neatly laid-out ingredients.

"The fridge is full of ingredients too. This is awesome…"

Augustus is extremely excited as the ingredients look very interesting. Clearly, they are not normal ingredients that can be found on earth.

Lastly, Augustus unlocked the Personal Assistance feature, which cost ten million spirit stones.

"It better be worth ten million spirit stones," Augustus prayed.

[The 'Personal Assistant' is Unlocked]

A robot appeared out of thin air, which was round-shaped and looked like an egg.

"This is the assistant that's worth ten million?"

Augustus gave it a soft kick trying to get the robot moving, but nothing happened.

[Personal Assistant Job List]

The list was a long one, filled with mundane tasks like cleaning, yardwork, serving guests, shopping and running errands, personal assistance, pet care, and security.

Augustus groaned as he read through each one, realizing he had no time to do them all individually.

Luckily, there was a "check all" button at the bottom, and he clicked it without a second thought.

"I'm onto it, Master!" the robot chirped, and its light flickered to life.

The robot began moving, starting with sweeping and cleaning the backyard.

With a whir of gears and a flash of light, its tools appeared from its stomach, including a broom, vacuum, trimmers, and more.

Augustus had never bothered with these tasks since he arrived, believing they were unnecessary.

"I mean, it does look like a huge mess, especially after I discovered fishing and tried to cook in my backyard."

The garden was in disarray, with flowers and trees wilting, and weeds growing rampant.

The robot reminded Augustus of the mess he had caused as it worked to fix it.

"I just ripped off the flowers and branches and never really took care of it," he said sheepishly.

As the robot tended to the rest of the mansion,

Augustus was amazed by its efficiency. It cleaned his bedroom, which had accumulated dust and had never been tidied up, and reminded him of the mess he had caused.

"Toilet not cleaned, dirty clothes piled up, trees and flowers slowly wilting due to lack of nutrients and water, burnt ashes on some parts of the plants, ruined living room, broken sugar cane and bamboo, pond not cleaned, fish dying, fishing pole dirty, …" the robot continued to notify him of the mess, which made him feel embarrassed since this place was a heavenly abode that he had let turn into a dumpster.

"I wonder what Ziyu thought when she arrived. Did she also think that everything was messy and dirty?" Augustus mused.

"Okay, the robot is worth ten million spirit stones since it can tend to the mansion while I'm away in the original world," he thought.

He was about to complain about the robot's worth, but after the reminder, he decided not to.

[Basic upgrades of the Martial Seclusion House have been implemented.]

[More locations are now available.]

[Dungeon]

A perfect place for the user to use improve skills level, gain experience, and earn points by killing monsters. The deeper the dungeon, the stronger the monster is.

[The Challenge Tower]

A perfect place to test the user's skills and earn rewards if the user manage to clear it. The higher the level, the harder it gets. High risk and High reward.

[Dimension Exploration]

The attempt resets monthly. The user is sent to a random dimension and assigned a quest. Upon completion, the user will return with abundance of rewards.

After unlocking all the features in the Martial Seclusion House, Augustus discovered that more things were unlocked.

It seemed like he would be spending the whole day and night in the house until the next morning in his original world.

Ignoring the new locations for now, Augustus decided to head to the library first. Upon arriving at the library, he was amazed to see that it was spiraling up, with endless books available on every floor.

[Welcome to the "Martial Library"]

[Feel free to explore. The user can instantly learn a skill at the cost of spirit stones.]

[Each floor represents a cultivation realm. The higher the cultivation realm, the higher the user can go up the library to get more powerful skills.]

"So, I just see which skills are suitable and buy them?" Augustus wondered as he tried to grab a random book. But as he attempted to read it, a screen popped up.

[Grade-1 Martial Arts, Fire Palm]

[Requirement: Fire Qi: 5]

[Cost: 100K Spirit Stones]

Augustus had already reached the Golden Core Realm after a few weeks of cultivation, but he had no idea how to convert his qi into different elements. The Cultivation Technique that the system gave him for 10k points was quite useless to the point where he hesitated to upgrade it.

[Cultivation Technique]

Normal Cultivation Technique developed for the user.

[Upgrade Cost: 10k points]

"I don't even feel the effect after cultivating for so long. It's as if the system created this skill just to tempt me to help Jackson at that time," Augustus thought to himself.

As he continued to browse the library, he finally found a proper section on cultivation techniques that contained multiple types of cultivation techniques.

Sigh

"The system can't even speak to me anyway," Augustus muttered under his breath.

[Grade-1 Fire Element Cultivation Technique]

"While cultivating, you will have the ability to convert your Qi to Fire Qi."

[Requirement: Qi: 10]

[Cost: 100K Spirit Stones]

"There are Fire, Water, and Earth, three elements available on the first floor," Augustus noted.

"Hmm, maybe I should try to see the cultivation techniques on the higher floors," he mused.

Augustus explored the floor above where the book choices were obviously smaller, but still had a lot to choose from.

[Grade-2 Fire Element Cultivation Technique]

"While cultivating, you will have the ability to convert your Qi into two Fire Qi."

[Requirement: Fire Qi: 10]

[Cost: 500K Spirit Stones]

"So, this cultivation technique on the higher floor is just an upgraded version," Augustus murmured to himself as he continued to browse the library.

He noticed that there were different elements available on the higher floors.

He came across a Grade-2 Lightning Cultivation Technique that would enable him to convert his Qi to Lightning Qi.

"You can learn a different element associated with the first element that you choose."

He discovered that Fire could learn Lightning, Water could learn Ice, and Earth could learn Wood.

Augustus also learned that on the third floor, he could learn dual cultivation techniques like the Grade-3 Fire & Lightning Cultivation Technique, which would allow him to convert his Qi to both Fire and Lightning simultaneously.

Either way, he needed to start from the bottom and convert his Qi to elemental Qi before he could learn the next grade of cultivation technique.

The hard part was that Augustus had never had the chance to convert his Qi to elemental type, and he didn't know which element would be the best choice.

The system then resounded in his head giving him information regarding difference in Qi and different builds.

Fire qi is associated with heat, energy, and passion, while lightning qi is associated with speed, agility, and power. The combination of these two elements can create an explosive force that can be used for both offense and defense.

Earth qi is associated with stability, grounding, and defense, while wood qi is associated with growth, flexibility, and healing. The combination of these two elements can create a balance of strength and adaptability, making it suitable for both defensive and offensive strategies.

Water qi is associated with flow, fluidity, and calmness, while ice qi is associated with coldness, stillness, and preservation. The combination of these two elements can create a versatile force that can be used for both defense and offense, with the added advantage of slowing down opponents or even freezing them in place.

"Argh, I don't know," he muttered in frustration. "Water and Ice sound like the best options for me. They focus on defense but can also be used offensively depending on the skill I learn."

Each elemental qi has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the user's preference and fighting style.

Fire and Lightning qi, for example, are suitable for those who prefer a fast and aggressive approach, while Earth and Wood qi are more suitable for those who prefer a stable and defensive approach.

Water and Ice qi, on the other hand, are suitable for those who prefer a more versatile and adaptable approach.

"I think I'll go for the water and ice build, aiming for dual cultivation on the third floor so I can balance out my Water Qi and Ice Qi."

As Augustus examined his status, he saw that he had successfully learned the Water Cultivation Technique.

He was pleased to see that he could now convert his Qi into Water Qi using the system.

"I thought I would need to rely on techniques or something. It's good to see that I can just rely on the system to convert the Qi."

[Warning: Converted Qi cannot be reversed.]

Without hesitation, Augustus clicked the button under his unique stats to convert 10 Qi into 10 Water Qi, allowing him to learn the Grade-2 Cultivation Technique.

Soon, he learned the Ice Cultivation Technique and converted another 10 Qi into Ice Qi. Finally, he converted the last 10 Qi into 10 Ice Qi and 10 Water Qi, and learned the Water & Ice Cultivation Technique.

As he updated his status, Augustus felt the power of his Water and Ice Qi. He now had 20 Water Qi and 20 Ice Qi.

[Augustus Gray]

[Cultivation Realm: Golden Core Realm]

[Mana Rating: Three-Star Mage]

[Aura Rating: One-Star Aura]

[Passive Skills: Pain Resistance Lvl 2, Advance Swordsmanship Lvl 1, Fusion Technique Lvl 3]

[Active Skills: Elemental Trap Lvl 10, Ichimonji's Strike Lvl 8, Stealth Rat Summoning Lvl 1, Slime Summoning Lvl 1]

STR: 50 CONS: 21

AGI: 38 DEF: 10

INT: 24 MAG: 43

Unique Stats:

Qi: 0

Water Qi: 20

Ice Qi: 20